Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in collaboration with Giant Leap Technologies, received $1.75 million Thursday from the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to improve solar power efficiency. The project is part of DOE's SunShot Initiative, which is a collaborative national effort that aggressively drives innovation to make solar energy fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources before the end of the decade. Through SunShot,...

Stellar Solar, a California commercial and residential solar installer has completed nearly all of a planned 125.5kW installation at San Rafael Parish in the Rancho Bernardo neighborhood of San Diego, pending inspections and certification. The impressive photovoltaic solar energy system uses (408) LG 315-watt modules, complimented by SolarEdge monitors and inverters; it is scheduled to be operational by mid-August 2016. Most notably, the job features four separate...

In July, the Fronius Solar Energy Division established a subsidiary in Greece. The Austrian inverter manufacturer is already familiar with the Greek market and is therefore turning to repowering as a route to success. On 4th July 2016, the 19th subsidiary of the Fronius Solar Energy Division opened its doors for the first time. A two-strong team of highly qualified colleagues will be cultivating the Greek market from the company’s base in Thessaloniki. Over the last ten years Fronius has...

According to a new report from GTM Research, The German Energy Storage Market: 2016-2021, Germany’s energy storage market will grow 11-fold in megawatt terms between 2015 and 2021 and will reach an annual value of $1.03 billion. Germany is already one of the world’s leading energy storage markets. At the end of 2015, Germany was home to 67 megawatts of energy storage (128 megawatt-hours) with a value of $169 million. The nation’s declining feed-in-tariffs, hig

A new wrinkle on an old technology - solid-state thermophotovoltaics (TPV) - could provide a high-efficiency alternative for directly converting high-temperature heat from concentrated solar thermal to utility-scale electricity. New computer modeling suggests that high temperature TPV conversion - which captures infrared radiation from very hot surfaces - could one day rival combined-cycle turbine systems when combined with thermal storage using liquid metal at temperatures around 1,300...

The global energy storage market is expected to double, from 1.4 gigawatt hour (GWh) added in 2015 to 2.9 GWh this year, offering unique growth prospects for many energy companies as global energy markets continue to cool. Global grid-connected energy storage capacity will surge to 21 GWh by 2025, according to IHS Markit, a specialist in critical information, analytics and solutions. Over the next decade, Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries will become the mainstream energy-storage...

Modernize, an online service that connects homeowners with contractors specializing in energy-efficient home improvement projects, today announced the launch of ModSun, a residential solar panel cost calculator focused on providing a transparent approach to going solar. Powered by the only solar resource with nationwide Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) data, ModSun accurately maps each square meter of a rooftop's size, slope, orientation and average sunlight intensity on more than...

Solar Impulse 2 landed in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday 25 July, completing the first round-the-world flight by a solar powered plane. The plane began the journey in March 2015 in Abu Dhabi and completed it in stages, with stops in Oman, India, Myanmar, China, Nanjing, Hawaii, San Francisco, Phoenix, Tulsa, Dayton, New York, Seville, and Cairo before landing back in Abu Dhabi. Two pilots, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg were on board the revolutionary single-seater aircraft made of carbon...

Sungrow, a PV inverter manufacturer, announces the successful connection to the grid of a 4MW project in extremely harsh conditions. The project uses Sungrow’s SG60KTL string inverter and is located in the Ukraine. This project is located in Vysokopillya, Southern Ukraine, where heavy rainfall, snow, and freezing rain have frequently posed challenges for solar inverters. With temperatures below freezing for months of the year, the SG60KTL’s working conditions have been severely...

The game-changer for clean energy (also known as Tesla – Elon Musk’s Company) is making waves in the industry of solar energy ever since they decided to make it their business. In true Elon Musk fashion, he decided to get Tesla involved in the niche of solar energy in 2016 when he let the world...

Hawaii is famously reliant on imported fossil fuels, for both electricity and transportation. But that’s changing rapidly as the state invests heavily in renewables. Two new bills are now pending in the Hawaii legislature that would codify the 100 percent renewables goal statewide, up from the current mandate of 40 percent by 2030. HB 623 would require...

In the ongoing wars over solar energy, one power company is consistently painted as the archetypal, mustache-twirling nemesis of clean electricity: Arizona Public Service. So you might be surprised to learn that this same company is about to become a big new producer of rooftop solar power. APS is an unlikely solar patron: In the...

So far, specific details are thin on the new battery designed for home use that Tesla’s announcing next week. But just based on what we do know, it’s a pretty big deal. The quest for a good battery that can store home-generated power is kind of like the holy grail for a renewable energy future. This...